ponyvania_order_of_equestriafandomcom-20200216-history
Talk:Skill/@comment-24353761-20151107195528
Hi, I'm back. And this time, I'm babbling about some of the Unicorn Skills! :-D Prism Shot: Pass. Its damage is far too small, and the MP that it gives you, while bigger than its damage, isn't bigger by much. Sure, it only costs 5 MP to cast, the MP it returns (if it hits something) always outweighs its cost and the orb will keep existing and tossing you MP for as long as you jam on the appropriate key. But by the time you get this spell, your unicorn already has far better ways of recovering MP...not too difficult a triumph over a spell which is decidedly lackluster even when maxed. I give it a rating of 1 star out of 5; save your spell slots for the spells that are actually somewhat useful instead. Lapiste: I may have said it before, but Lapiste's only good until Rock Wrecker and/or Vol Grando come along. One would think that a spell with Lapiste's limited striking area would do proportionately more damage, but that's not the case at all. Lapiste's pretty conservative on MP and it costs less to cast Lapiste than it does to cast those other spells, but let's face it: Unicorns don't have any trouble getting a lot of MP. You don't want a spell because it's low on MP cost; you want a spell because it can bust those Bone Scimitars to pieces before they can do the same to you. And if your MP's so low that Lapiste's low cost actually makes it look like the optimal choice, then either you just got Cursed or you're plowing through the stage way too fast. My rating: 2 out of 5 (and even that might be generous). Ice Spear: I'm not a fan of this one. It's pretty slow to get started, and like the earth ponies and their hammers prove, slow weapons or spells aren't all that practical in a fast-paced battle. And while it's nice at punching through multiple enemies standing in front of you, your enemies usually aren't accommodating enough to line themselves up like that for your convenience. Use spells like Acerbatus to clear rooms instead, or use Vol Grando and/or Cocytus if you're looking to take advantage of an enemy's Ice weakness. My rating: 2 stars out of 5. Dark Eruption: This spell can cover a pretty good breadth around you, but only after you've taken a nasty beating. It's more of a desperation spell than anything, and thus it almost encourages you to let yourself get slapped around, just so Dark Eruption will go from "Sucks" to "Rocks". But here's the thing: Unicorns don't have a whole lot of HP to begin with. They're already just a few Minotaur punches from death's door, right out the gate, and it's just as likely that getting a hair too close to doom and unleasing the mightiest Dark Eruption there ever was is just going to result in your unicorn and the enemy killing each other. Dark Eruption lingers where you cast it, making it useful for covering your retreat, but aside from that, I find it more practical to fight my way back from the verge of defeat with spells like Vol Grando, Rock Wrecker and Acerbatus instead. My rating: 2 out of 5. Black Viper: As per its description, it hunts enemies down and runs into them, which is nice if you just want to hide in a little nook and blast enemies from a position of safety. But the Black Viper is problematic to use; it doesn't seem to want to hit a single particular enemy more than once per snake. This weakness became apparent while I was training Black Viper in Cloudsdale, harrying a Stolas and its summoned allies with Black Vipers. Stolases (or whatever the plural is) are resistant to Black Viper and other Dark attacks, making them useful for training Dark skills. But each time I'd send a snake now, it would loop and wind around, hit each enemy -- including the Stolas -- once and only once, then circle uselessly around my unicorn, completing ignoring the surviving monsters, until it finally flew awa so that I could finally cast Black Viper again. Its damage is good, but factor in its "one hit per enemy" limitation and its "no multiple simultaneous snakes" limitation and Black Viper's easily drawbacks outweigh its benefits. If you need a Dark spell for sniping bogies from hiding, I'd recommend Globus or Dark Rift instead. My rating: 2 out of 5. Optical Shot: For what it costs to cast Optical Shot, you definitely get your mana's worth! It's a Fire spell with some pretty solid damage, and as its twin flares orbit you during the first sequence of the attack, it makes a handy defensive spell in a pinch. Flammable creatures like mummies are no match for Optical Shot, and the flares get an increasingly broader spread with range, making it great for attacking multiple enemies from range. Unfortunately, an enemy at just the wrong distance from you won't be struck by either shot, making it a waste of MP on occasion; on the other hand, an enemy at just the right distance will get hit by both orbs for double damage. My rating: 4 out of 5. Stone Circle: I like my defensive spells; just ask Cubus! Stone Circle is quite useful for thumping enemies who get uncomfortably close, while also knocking most of their ranged attacks out of the air as well. Train Stone Circle and max it as soon as possible for even better protection: Seven large boulders instead of five not-so-large ones. (Cloudsdale is a great place to train Stone Circle; just find one of those places with Medusa Heads flying all over the place and keep refreshing your boulders as soon as they expire.) After that, the Jackalope arena in the Skeleton Cave becomes nothing more than a leisurely stroll. I'd call Stone Circle a must-have if you're in any way interested in your fragile little unicorn's long-term survival. My rating: 4 (or maybe even 5) out of 5. Acerbatus: Oh, my Celestia. Now this is an attack spell! It's a big, orangey orb of death with great damage and a reasonable MP cost. It can and often does deal multiple hits, the number of which increase the further the orb travels; enemies at the very end of Acerbatus' trajectory can expect to be hit four or five times, which is usually fatal for said enemies. It can also strike certain ranged weapons out of the air, which turns it into a big, rolling shield of death when facing certain enemies. Even the stalwart Discus Knight in the Skeleton Cave, with its Strike damage vulnerability and no weakness to Dark, couldn't withstand more than two well-distanced Acerbatuses (Acerbati?); contrast that to the three Rock Wreckers which were needed to achieve the same end. My rating: 5 out of 5, easily. Okay, I'm going to bed now. More to come! :-)